April 2010
17 posts
The best thing about Flash →
Jacqui Cheng at Ars Technica on Steve Jobs’ Letter on Flash:
Jobs makes the concession that iPhone OS users won’t be able to play Flash games, but says that there are plenty of other games on the App Store. (Someone let me know when there’s a version of Winterbells for iPhone.)
Playing games from Orisinal on the Wii is the best thing about Flash. I particularly enjoy Winterbells and A Daily...
iPad & Engineering Textbooks
I have read opinions that the iPad could be attractive to students because e-textbooks would be cheaper and lighter to carry compared to physical textbooks.
I have some other benefits in mind.
Today, I have been doing some Mechanics revision. An iPad textbook with moving diagrams and interactive content would be immensely valuable for my studies.
I can think of so many benefits of electronic...
Instapaper Pro 2.2.3 →
Instapaper Blog:
Fonts now scale after rotation
We even have improvements even in the iPhone version in what is mostly an iPad update!
I really love reading these design insight posts, and the new iPad design looks incredible. I kind of sort of want one now…
I am still not sure why I want Instapaper to work well in landscape. I just like the idea of apps looking great however you hold...
Have I lost my iPhone? →
Marco Arment in a footnote in ‘Daring Fireball: Gizmodo and the Prototype iPhone’:
If my iPhone isn’t in my pocket, I notice immediately. It’s a muscle memory: I instantly recognize that the sensation isn’t right.
I know this feeling.
Sometimes this happens: I panic momentarily realising my iPhone isn’t in my pocket, then remember that I am holding it.
Gizmodo and the Prototype iPhone →
John Gruber, Daring Fireball, regarding off-campus testing of pre-release Apple products:
Such units are not allowed to be demonstrated or revealed to anyone. Not friends, not spouses.
Pretty tough but fair, I think.
The whole article is informative and engaging. I’m not summarising it here, just sharing a thought on that quotation.
I imagine you would have to carry both a regular...
Put This On, Episode 2: Shoes →
Marco Arment again:
Make a “Watch Later” folder on Instapaper and save this there if you don’t have 10 minutes to watch it now.
Cool, Marco recommends using the system I’ve been using for a while now. As well as Read Later, I have added View Later (for difficult layouts), Watch Later, Listen Later and Act On Later (not for important tasks — mostly applications to download and try).
...
iPhone OS requirements →
Marco Arment:
Geeks can pull an old version of an app’s .ipa file from Time Machine, or presumably hack it out of something else. But for most people, there’s effectively no way to get it back. ↩
Or the Trash.
I agree, it might not obvious where to put the file when you find it.
But aren’t jailbreakers geek enough to know this sort of file system hackery?
iPad Web Browser with built in Google Search
Search is fundamental to the web. Safari already integrates making a Google Search. I wonder how it would work out if a web browsing app integrated the results as well.
I thought of this while looking at Making of NetNewsWire/iPad: UI Walkthrough. I stole images from the mockups and replaced the list of feed contents with Google search results.
First, a split view in landscape:
And a...
My iPhone Background Processes List
Before watching the iPhone OS 4 Developer Preview event, I jotted down a list of what I thought background applications on the iPhone should be about. (I saw the headlines announcing the coming of multitasking before watch the event.)
I wrote this post in full after watching the event, but I thought of these ideas beforehand.
1. Background Syncing
When I open iPhone Mail, I don’t have...
iPhone OS 4 Developer Preview Event
Currently, I haven’t read what others have to say about the features revealed at the iPhone OS 4 Developer Preview Event. I finished watching the video of the event this morning and here I’ll share my initial impressions. I shall catch up on what others are thinking after writing this.
Seven key features were shown at the event. There is by far the most to discuss about the first:...
Andy Ihnatko: iPad Accessories →
I’ll say this: if they ever make a bread machine with an integrated iPad dock, I’ll almost have to buy it.
I can seriously imagine this. Already, an iPhone or iPod touch can be used to control what is on a TV (with AppleTV and maybe in other ways). I think there’s an app for unlocking your car.
I don’t see why these devices with lovely touch screen interfaces shouldn’t be...
Rotating to Landscape & Sideways Scrolling
This follows on from my previous post.
I really like Lukas Mathis’ idea to show the adjacent iPad home screens when rotating to landscape. Perhaps I like it so much because I had the same idea myself. A while ago, I devised a concept for a very simple looking iPhone feed reader.
Mockups
Portrait:
Landscape:
How it works
Synchronises with Google Reader
All feeds are put together
The...
Ignore the Code: iPad Springboard Breaks... →
On Ignore the Code, Lukas Mathis has written about what happens when rotating the iPad home screen. Read that first and look at the illustrations. (I think it’s always worthwhile reading Ignore the Code if you have any interest in user interface design.)
Out of the three ways of dealing with rotation, I think restricting landscape to only four columns is the best. Apple’s way is in the middle....
David Pogue’s iPad review →
The bottom line is that the iPad has been designed and built by a bunch of perfectionists. If you like the concept, you’ll love the machine.
The only question is: Do you like the concept?
Just to be clear, I love the concept.
